After roughly two years of declines, growth in worldwide market for desktop PC sales is poised to rebound into the black during the 2010 calendar year, thanks largely to Apple's latest iMac offerings, according to a published report.

In a research note issued Wednesday by Caris & Company, analyst Robert Cihra said growth in the overall PC market for 2010 is trending upwards of 15 to 20%, fueled by greater than 90% growth in combined sales of netbooks and notebooks.

At the same time, however, he said desktop sales are showing signs of life for the first time in 24 months, given strong performance of Apple's iMac line that could boost year-over-year shipments by approximately 3%, compared to last year's 12% slippage.

"We continue to model note/netbook accounting for greater than 90% of PC unit growth in 2010, but with desktops at least now looking like theyve stopped eroding and can resume at least some low single-digit recovery after 2 years of decline, driven by emerging markets, corporate workhorse use and power gamers," Cihra wrote. "But believe it or not, we estimate Apples iMac accounting for a full 1/4 of ALL desktop market growth in calendar year 2010."

Regionally, the analyst estimates that while US corporate demand for PCs is finally gaining some steam, the majority of overall growth in the sector is likely to come from emerging markets like Western Europe and Japan, which he sees accounting for some 70% of the market's growth. This would represent the first time international sales contributed to more than 50% of the market, he added.

The iMac's contributions to global desktop growth shouldn't necessarily come as a surprise. Following the October introduction of new 21- and 27-inch models, Apple in November saw its combined Mac sales rise by 21%, driven by a staggering 74% growth rate in sales of desktop Macs.

During its most recent quarter ended December, the Cupertino-based company continued to ride on the new iMacs' momentum, reporting a 57% rise in desktop sales sequentially, which translated into a 70% jump year-over-year. Revenues for the segment were also up 55% and 62%, respectively.

In his report Wednesday, Cihra offered comments of praise to this end, backslapping the Mac maker for remaining in control of its own product and pricing schedules. This has allowed the company to maintain much higher overall ASPs (average selling prices) than its peers while still delivering more affordable prices to its customers.

Caris & Company, which reiterated its Buy rating on shares of Apple, expects the Mac to grow at 1.6 times the industry average during the 2010 calendar year.

I was ready to buy a 27" top of the line iMac last year, until I saw it lacked a blu-ray drive.

Since then PCs have come down in price so much I can't see myself buying the iMac, even if Apple ever put a modern optical drive in it. Here in the UK I can literally get a Dell with a higher spec for HALF the price. Just nuts.

Since then PCs have come down in price so much I can't see myself buying the iMac, even if Apple ever put a modern optical drive in it. Here in the UK I can literally get a Dell with a higher spec for HALF the price. Just nuts.

But then it will only last 1/3 the time, and 2/3 of your time will be spent battling viruses.

I was ready to buy a 27" top of the line iMac last year, until I saw it lacked a blu-ray drive.

Since then PCs have come down in price so much I can't see myself buying the iMac, even if Apple ever put a modern optical drive in it. Here in the UK I can literally get a Dell with a higher spec for HALF the price. Just nuts.

I don't think pricing is the crucial point. An Apple usually holds more value than computers from other manufacturers. But it would be good, if Apple would spend some more of their money. For example a neat big server farm in Europe would be great!

Every once in while I see this argument and I go shopping around the net for the mythical 50% off computer. I use simple rules. I am trying to match a computer made by Apple, so I only count machines that are actually similar in parts, quality, and features. Then I add software until I have something at least close to the Mac in question.

Most of the time the PC costs more before I even get to the software part.

Just because Dell sells some ugly tower with a CPU almost as fast and a monitor a little smaller but of lower quality and with a smaller drive size and with a less capable graphics card, that does not mean it is the same computer.

...and all of that is before I factor in that the dell is running windows, and having spent a decade being in charge of over 400 windows machines, i know what pain feels like, and I will never go back to running that "software" again.

OSX, because making UNIX user friendly is easier than debugging windows.

I was ready to buy a 27" top of the line iMac last year, until I saw it lacked a blu-ray drive.

Since then PCs have come down in price so much I can't see myself buying the iMac, even if Apple ever put a modern optical drive in it. Here in the UK I can literally get a Dell with a higher spec for HALF the price. Just nuts.

Hey, kotatsu, I see that you're taking up the mantle for teckstud with your blu-ray whine. What next? Glossy screens?

PS: If you so badly want a brp and a Mac, buy the former for $100 and hook it up. There, done.

Dont hold your breath while waiting for those price reductions...the whole point of the article is that they have engineeried their business so that they do not need to give price breaks to maintain their viability.

Notice how the ASP on HP/Dell notebooks takes an absolute nosedive? I am pretty sure that during the same period their sales didnt accelerate any faster than Apples. Big win for Apple.

My 4-year old powerbook just blew a logic board. I was considering replacing it with a sexy new macbook until I realized that iPad + iMac is both fiscally and conveniently a better deal. Most of the time I'm on the go I don't really want a full computer, but when I want a full computer, I want a huge screen, lots of space and no heat on my lap.
I have my 27" iMac on a cart so if I want to bring it to different rooms I can and in that way it is portable, but I would never need it in another location besides my house.

No window's machine even comes close to a Mac in parts, quality and features. Not even close. Mac's RULE!

I agree with you about the fact that Macs rule..... But disagree with you about the hardware point of view. The hardware in a Mac and other top PC maker are most times built by the same suppliers.
The thing that truly separates the Apple products from other hardware vendors is the operating system. The ease of use that comes with the very finely tuned operating system separates the Mac from everything else...... Apple has a very unique way of integrating hardware and operating system that is not matched by anyone else in the business.

Tallest Skil:

"Eventually Google will have their Afghanistan with Oracle and collapse" "The future is Apple, Google, and a third company that hasn't yet been created."

I was ready to buy a 27" top of the line iMac last year, until I saw it lacked a blu-ray drive.

Since then PCs have come down in price so much I can't see myself buying the iMac, even if Apple ever put a modern optical drive in it. Here in the UK I can literally get a Dell with a higher spec for HALF the price. Just nuts.

Prices in the UK must be COMPLETELY out of whack with those here in the US. I just did a comparison between the Dell All-in-one and the iMac. I would say the prices were totally comparable. Here are the pluses and minuses of each and the price...

That is a price difference of $255 in favor of the Dell. However, the iMac has faster memory and a 3" larger screen. I would say that this goes a LONG way to absorbing that $255 difference, and that's not even taking into account the operating system. One final not about this comparison, the Dell doesn't offer a BluRay in this All-in-One.

Unfortunately, you are about right on the laptop side from what I can tell. Comparing a Dell Studio 15 to a comparable 15" MBP is really ugly for the Mac. I'm guessing though that the comparison will be much more favorable if Apple would ever get off their duff and release the MBP update.

1. you would have to be a total moron not to protect you pc in about 10 min
2. BSOD? Guess you have not heard of windows 7 then.

Actually its hardware/drivers.

Ahhh....... c'mon now! I am a die hard Apple fan and we have 4 Macs in our house right now along with 4 Windows PCs and we have not had one BSOD or a virus with Win 7.
There are so many mis conceptions out there........... I have been supporting building maintaining Windows/Mac computers for 15 years in an enterprise environment. They ALL have their good points and bad points. I love Apple products and I will get 2 iPads for my wife and son.

Tallest Skil:

"Eventually Google will have their Afghanistan with Oracle and collapse" "The future is Apple, Google, and a third company that hasn't yet been created."

No window's machine even comes close to a Mac in parts, quality and features. Not even close. Mac's RULE!

actually, i hate to say it, this is only partially true at this point. Apple is starting to expand their margins at a big rate, by cutting back on many different parts, and not offering their new equivilent on new models.

ie, Blu-Ray is nowhere to be seen. All the Superdrives ain't so super, and Apple is blocking out Blu-Ray to protect itunes movie store.

also, as Apple is able to wring lower manufacturing costs, they haven't been dropping prices much at all. Hey its a great time to be a shareholder. but sadly it feels like the reinvestment Apple ought to be making is less driven by the latest and greatest physical tech, and more by OS enhancements.

much like the iphone, apple is squeezing hardware costs lower to have a higher profit margin. Sad to say this is limiting consumer choice in the case of Blu-Ray. but shareholders ought to be happy.

I was ready to buy a 27" top of the line iMac last year, until I saw it lacked a blu-ray drive.

Since then PCs have come down in price so much I can't see myself buying the iMac, even if Apple ever put a modern optical drive in it. Here in the UK I can literally get a Dell with a higher spec for HALF the price. Just nuts.

I'm not sure what the relevance (if any) of your point is, but I checked and you are totally wrong.

Dell XPS all in one 24inch Quad core computer is currently on the Dell site at Inc £1799
Apple Imac all in one 27inch quad Core is currently on the Apple site at £1634 + vat £1919.95

Oh and I forgot to mention, the Dell is butt ugly, it's speakers look like an elephants ears, it would just keep putting me off my work.

So let me summarise, for that extra £120.95, I get a beautifully crafted imac with a huge screen dwarfing the largest all-in-one available by Dell. It runs Snow leopard and not Windows (that has to be worth the £120.95 on it's own). I don't need to run virus software, I get a faster processor, I get double the ram, I get twice the hard drive, oh and I get ilife pre-installed. Now let me think, which should i go for?

so next time you're trolling the apple sites, at least come along with something relevant and true, that would be nice.

oh please, you have been drinking Steve Job's Koolaid. you really believe it is a "Bag of Hurt?" you honestly believe that Apple, the greatest company at licensing and clearance of rights could not handle licensing the patents for Blu-Ray??

Cmon, you are naive. Apple hasn't done blu-ray because they want to protect the itunes movie store. Sadly BD has shown Apple love in the form of total itunes support for Digital Copies, but when asked to return the favor... Apple stonewalls this new technology.

Apple ought to integrate BD. there exist numerous Superdrives that can be used that

1- burn CD/DVD's and read Blu-Rays
2- Burn CD/DVD/and BD

these drives are cheap and cost effective now. they cost about the same as the original superdrives, and... they can be made an option on macs.

simply put, there is no good reason why Apple ought not adopt BD in some models on laptop and desktop lines. let their consumers decide if they want it. the tech is cheap enough to be adopted all over the Apple Mac Product line.

Thus balance is maintained within the great scheme of things that is the Appleinsider website.

There is no need to 'maintain balance,' unless you are adopting the perspective of a troll. AI is an Apple fan website, with most of us here fairly happy with Apple/Mac/SJ/etc but with our differences of opinion.

Go elsewhere. Try engadget.com, for instance, where they love people like you! You'll find lots of validation there.

Prices in the UK must be COMPLETELY out of whack with those here in the US. I just did a comparison between the Dell All-in-one and the iMac. I would say the prices were totally comparable. Here are the pluses and minuses of each and the price...

That is a price difference of $255 in favor of the Dell. However, the iMac has faster memory and a 3" larger screen. I would say that this goes a LONG way to absorbing that $255 difference, and that's not even taking into account the operating system. One final not about this comparison, the Dell doesn't offer a BluRay in this All-in-One.

Unfortunately, you are about right on the laptop side from what I can tell. Comparing a Dell Studio 15 to a comparable 15" MBP is really ugly for the Mac. I'm guessing though that the comparison will be much more favorable if Apple would ever get off their duff and release the MBP update.

Sadly Apple does rip off the UK consumer, I understand the US price doesn't include sales tax etc etc but when you add it all up ex sales tax etc we pay a LOT more.

Dell charges us the same as they charge you in America, Apple does not.

There you go. Though i very much doubt you would have any idea about PC components.

The about system will blow a mac pro away. Heck you can even Hackintosh the above system, with much better components and overclock it.

Enthusiast PC parts crap all over generic apple parts that go in a mac.

Macs are not about what is inside (its a PC!), you just do not get it

Your wasting your time. I've seen how this discussion unfolds in here, and ultimately nothing will convince anyone here that a PC is in any way a better deal. In fact, they seem to want to out-do one another in their absurd dismissal of PC's in order to come off as a truer Mac die-hard.

You and I know what's up, and we can have a great time with our money.

Personally, I could care less about Blu-Ray in a portable device. As a storage medium, it's trumped by portable external drives, and I wouldn't want to carry around a bunch of blu-ray discs @ $25 a pop, just so I can get a marginally noticeable image quality improvement on a 15" screen. Seems rather blown out of proportion.

Then again, I actually do crazy things like work on my portables, not carry them around as a glorified media player or fashion accessory.

My particular favourite was NTLDR NOT FOUND. Which meant I was screwed.

As far as the news goes, Apple's been on roll with Macs anyway. This was sort of to be expected, I suppose.

IRQ is usually a driver issue but can also point to ram issues. This can easily be diagnosed by uninstalling whatever latest drivers were installed in safemode, then reverting to previous drivers or grabbing latest from the internet. If it's a ram issue, running memtest will tell you if a stick has gone bad.

Your NTLDR error happens when the system has a problem finding a solid source to boot from. If it randomly happens, pop in your windows 2000 cd and go into repair mode.

The problems you list here tend not to show their ugly face anymore, however. I have experienced them though, but I can say it's not as much of a headache as you would think.